By Nokuthaba Dlamini
NINE months after their lives were turned upside down by raging floods, some Binga women and children are still struggling to cope.
Limited access to health and starvation has emerged as the biggest threat to their lives.
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation with non-governmental organisations that initially came to the rescue of the affected families facing difficulties in accessing them.
Flooding hit the area around the confluence of Sibwambwa, Sikande, Namapande and Manyenyengwa rivers in February, destroying 181 homesteads within the floodplain.
The villagers lost their livestock, household property and stored food, roads to the area were also destroyed, making it difficult for cars and buses to pass through.
The Nsungwale area under Chief Sinakoma was the hardest hit.
Initially the government and non-governmental organisations rushed to the victims’ rescue, but a month later Covid-19 struck in Zimbabwe and the government imposed a lockdown that restricted travel across the country.
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The victims, including men who have been cut off from health institutions in one of the remotest districts in Zimbabwe, say they feel abandoned.
They have fled government-provided temporary structures as no humanitarian assistance has been rendered to them.
At the camp, their children and the elderly have not been able to access health facilities for immunisation and treatment of various ailments.
Lingani Nyoni, a teenage mother from Chitete ward, says she fears for her child’s health, who has not been immunised and is often sick.
“My child is six months old and I have not been able to get him immunised,” said the distraught Nyoni.
“I had been staying at the camp since he was born and there is no medical treatment that was given to him or other young children there.
“I decided to leave the place in August as many other victims had deserted the camp to look for food and rebuild their homes.
“We had no choice because the government left us around March and never reported back to us.”
Nyoni said they had to sleep without food on several occasions and relied on food handouts from other villagers living in the area.
She now lives in Kamativi where some of her relatives reside.
Lenziwe Siachilaba (57) from Sikande village deserted the camp after spending several weeks feeling sick and without any medical care.
“I was vomiting severely until at some point my neighbours told me that I had passed out,” Siachilaba said.
“Life in the camp was extremely hard because we were never given food, toiletries and medication.
“We have come back to our homesteads that were destroyed and we are in the process of trying to rebuild before the rains start.”
For Siachilaba and others, picking the pieces left when the floods pounced on them is better than being at the camp.
“We are scared that if the floods strike again, our lives will be turned upside down, but that for now does not matter because the camp felt as if we were being punished for this disaster,” she said.
Nyoni and Siachilaba’s experiences at the camp have been confirmed by former Binga North MP Prince Dubeko Sibanda, who said the government had not taken care of the flood victims.
However, the minister of State for Matabeleland North province Richard Moyo said the flood victims moved away from the camp to engage in illegal activities like poaching in parks.
Moyo said the government had already set aside land for the 181 families to rebuild their homesteads in the upper side of the same area, but there was resistance from the villagers.
l This article was originally published by The Citizen Bulletin, a hyperlocal news outlet covering Covid-19 in Matabeleland.
